A great adolescent literacy website link: adolescent literacy classroom strategies

Below are various adolescent literacy resources that we've done (or perhaps will do) in our class!

Literacy Activity
Directions
Add my two cents...
* After you copy each line, you will fold the paper (so what you’ve written is not visible) and pass the paper to the right.
Title: Literacy In My Life
Line 1: I am a person who _to read because….
Line 2: In first grade, …..
Line 3: If I ever wrote a book, it would be about…
Line 4: Because of my students, I’ve learned that literacy….
Line 5: The key to good writing is……
Line 6: If there’s one book I could get all my students to read, it would be….

* Have students read their completed documents aloud
* (these sentence starters can be tailored to your content/lesson)
Mime It, Act it, Draw it!
* You will be assigned one passage from our reading
  • In your group, you will need to find a way to mime, act, or draw the meaning
  • The rest of the class will have to guess the meaning of your passage.
*After you reveal your passage, your group will be responsible for explaining this quote and its relevance.

Graffiti
* (create “topic posters” related to whatever topics/themes you may be studying)
*Go around the room and stand next to the topic poster you are most interested in.
  • Tell someone in your group why you’re interested in this topic.
  • Tell someone in your group why other people DO NOT like this topic
  • Turn these negative comments into graffiti
Timed Topic Talks
* Begin by creating a list of topics for students to discuss. These should be topics that the students have already learned about and are quite familiar with. This is a good review activity.
* Tell students to get into partners. One student should be Partner A and the other Partner B.
* Inform students that they will each have one minute to share all they know/opinions on that topic.
* Call out a topic...set a timer for one minute. Then switch!
Pro/Con Statements
* Create pro and con positions on a topic
* Assign students to either pro or con.
* Give students time to write a pro/con statements with supporting evidence.
* pro/con statement skeleton:
My Position is........................
Many people think that..............because...............
However, I think that...............because...............
Also because.......................
In short, ...................because..................
  • Give students time to share pro/con statements with partners from the opposite sides
A-Z information
* Students should write the alphabet down the side of a page.
* Assign students a topic you;ve been studying to write about.
* Students should then write true statements about the topic, each line beginning with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.
* Great activity for groups
Write Around
* Students respond to a question of your prompting in writing
  • Pass writing to a partner, who then responds in writing
  • You can continue the dialogue between these two partner or continue to include other class members responding in writing.
Order of Importance
* Type out quotes from a class text.
* In groups, students should rank the quotes in order of importance
* This can be a good pre-reading or after-reading activity. It forces students to evaluate importance of different ideas of a reading.
* It can also be a good way to teach organization in writing.